FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT DRUG DEALERS - PAGE 4

Four police officers in straw hats posing as drug dealers Friday night gave 14 people looking to get high more than they bargained for -- a night in jail. The reverse sting operation was in front of the EZ Market on the 1000 block of North Seacrest Boulevard, a known spot for crack-cocaine and marijuana sales, police said. Sixteen officers were involved in the sting. After the purchases were made, officers pulled over the buyer's vehicle a few blocks later and arrested the suspects. "What we're aiming for is the quality-of-life issues for the citizens," Lt. Kelly Harris said.

Drug dealers convicted of peddling their wares to children should be imprisoned for at least 10 years, the House decided Thursday. Despite a unanimous voice vote on the amendment, uncomfortable House leaders later said chances are slim the whole bill will survive the session. The problem comes in the undetermined financial impact it would have on the prison system. "We`ve got lots of other priorities, and we`ve spent our money on corrections already," said House Speaker Pro Tempore Elaine Gordon, D-North Miami, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee which will decide that issue.

The snitches keep coming forward in the case of Michael Koblan, charged with killing a Singer Island couple in November 1998. A bank robber who was held in the Palm Beach County Jail with Koblan has told federal prosecutors that Koblan made admissions to him about the slayings, according to court records. In recent months, two Riviera Beach drug dealers have come forward to say that Christopher Benedetto and Janette Piro were murdered by crack dealers during a home-invasion robbery, court records show.

BOYNTON BEACH -- A community organizer made a plea to city commissioners for more supervised activities and police protection to drive drug dealers out of the neighborhood park where 6-year-old Corey Botta was shot in the face. Tuesday night, with the boy and his parents in the City Hall audience, Michele Constantino said neighborhood children are too afraid to use Rolling Green Park and have to play in the street where there are no drug dealers. She said renovation of Rolling Green Park has been in the works for more than two years, but construction isn`t planned until November.

Almost 80 members of the South Middle River Civic Association teamed up with the Police Department last month for a Citizen's Action Team Walk, an attempt to reclaim the neighborhood from drug dealers and petty street criminals. City Commissioner Tim Smith, a resident of nearby Middle River Terrace, also attended to lend his support. "This neighborhood holds a lot of promise," said Smith, who said similar efforts resulted in the cleanup of his own community. "This [event] empowers people."

In 1988, days before federal agents made a surprise arrest of five Bank of Credit and Commerce International executives after a long undercover operation, some of the world`s most powerful drug dealers quietly withdrew millions of dollars from their BCCI accounts, internal bank records show. Some government investigators are now suspicious that the politically connected bank or its customers were tipped off by sources inside the U.S. government. If there was a leak, the source of it is one of several mysteries surrounding the bank and the American government`s bungled efforts to investigate its activities in the United States.

For months there had been talk about converting a drug-infested apartment building into a police substation/community center. Now the concrete has been poured, the walls are up, and the new roof is on its way -- providing physical proof that plans to build the substation are swiftly coming to fruition. "It's a little bit ahead of schedule," said City Manager Ivan Pato. "We'll have it done before the end of the year." To hear city officials tell it, 803 NW First St., the site of the new substation/community center had been a haven for drugs and a den for troublemakers.

A once-quiet neighborhood in a county pocket in Lantana has become the scene of a struggle between homeowners and drug dealers. Located a few blocks north of Rolling Green Elementary School, neighbors are determined to fight the problem. Gloria White moved to her duplex 15 years ago when the area was filled with older homeowners and winter residents. Eventually, young families moved in. But when drug dealers rented homes, traffic and crime shot up, White said. Homes were broken into and possessions taken.

Rusty`s Soul Grocery is a legitimate store with a problem: Drug dealers and vagrants like to congregate outside. Because of that, Broward County has declared the store a public nuisance and may shut it down. If Rusty`s is closed during a hearing on Aug. 10, the same fate could threaten many businesses in drug-infested areas, said lawyer Charles Cherry, whose own office in northwest Fort Lauderdale is faced with similar problems. "If this sets a precedent, it`s going to (anger) a whole lot of legitimate businesses in the area," Cherry said.

Within three days, a scouring process will begin on crime-ridden Iris Street that will not end until most street drug dealing is swept out of West Palm Beach, the city`s new police chief said Monday. Within a month, troubled Iris Street will be free of drug dealers and the crime that often surrounds them, if everything goes according to plan, Police Chief George Siegrist promised residents and commissioners at a City Commission meeting. But the spring cleaning plan does not stop there.